[Olfactory event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging in young adults with normal sense of smell and anosmia patients].
OBJECTIVE
To explore the brain activation mapping following odor presentation with event -related functional magnetic resonance imaging.


METHODS
Ten healthy young volunteers with normal sense of smell and 5 anosmia patients, all right-handed, underwent routine otorhinolaryngological examination and T&T subjective smelling test. Odorant isoamyl acetate was delivered by olfactometer synchronously with inspiration birhinally for 10 times with the interstimulus interval of 60 seconds. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) based on the blood-oxygen-level dependent effect was carried out on a 3.0 T scanner, using gradient-recalled echo and echo-planar imaging technique, and the image data were analyzed with SPM2 software.


RESULTS
Functional activations were found in the volunteers with normal sense of smell, but not in the patients with anosmia. The activation regions were present in the orbitofrontal gyrus, anterior cingulate gyrus, piriform cortex, insular gyrus, amygdala, thalamus, basal nuclei, temporal gyrus, and frontal gyrus. There were more active regions in the right hemisphere than in the left hemisphere, and there were 314 and 57 active voxels in the right and left hemispheres respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
Olfactory event-related fMRI is an objective measurement of olfaction, and has potential clinical application value.
Liu
Jian-Feng
JF
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing 100730, China.
You
Hui
H
Ni
Dao-Feng
DF
Zhu
Ying-Ying
YY
Jin
Zheng-Yu
ZY
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D000857:Olfaction Disorders / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D013687:Telencephalon / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D055815:Young Adult